Student turns project into community business

Rather than focus on quick profits, a 19-year-old student has decided to make a difference in the community by promoting vermicomposting for commercial use.

Karl Frederick Arriola may just be starting out, his business being a practicum requirement for his business plan project feasibility implementation subject at the University of San Carlos (USC), but he has high hopes for sustaining it.

“For me, this is not just a school requirement. This is really what I want to do,” Arriola told Sun.Star Cebu.

Going green

Arriola took the cue from the trend of “going green” and began planning the business when he was still a college sophomore.

While most of his classmates grouped together to put up food stalls and fashion accessories, Arriola did everything on his own and conceptualized a business that he felt would do something for the community.

He also decided to do things on his own, noting that some groups disbanded and forgot about their business once they passed the course.

He said it came to his attention that solid waste management is a problem in Metro Cebu and he wanted to provide a long-term solution to it.

By selling organic fertilizer, Arriola believes he can cater to landscapers and farmers who no longer want to use chemicals.

Now a college senior, he added that there are many farmers who want to switch to organic fertilizer but they are stuck with chemicals because organic products are not easily available.

He said he has received many inquiries from potential buyers who have expressed interest in buying organic fertilizer. These came after he posted information on Karl’s Organic Enterprise on Facebook and Blogger.

He said that with many people becoming more health-conscious, more farmers are interested in using only organic fertilizer.

Aside from being cheaper, organic fertilizer is safer because too much of it will not ruin the plants, unlike chemical fertilizers, he said.

Vermicomposting is when biodegradable waste is converted by earthworms into compost soil.

Arriola chose African night crawlers, saying experts consider their compost superior because it is nutrient-rich.

With his mother’s support, he inked a memorandum of agreement with a department store in Mandaue City, which agreed to give him its biodegradable waste for free.

He also signed an agreement with a property owner, who allowed him to use his property near the Umapad dumpsite.

The 1,000 square-meter property is where composting takes place and began operating since April.

The process takes two to three months to complete.

Arriola expects to accommodate one dump truck of biodegradable waste a day once it becomes fully operational.

For now, he hopes to sell organic fertilizer at P10 per kilo.

He sold his first pot of fertilizer yesterday, at the market exhibit of the USC main campus.

He saud he started out cheap because he started out small. But if he wants to go into large-scale production, he said he will need more for a shredder and to hire more employees.

Patience

“It’s not a breeze. It takes patience and a certain amount of understanding of the vermicomposting process,” he admitted.

However, he is optimistic that things will go smoothly once he is able to meet the demands of those who want to switch to organic farming.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on August 24, 2010.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites